The first time I tried to write a LinkedIn post about my editing business, I wrote and deleted the post 5 times. Every version sounded wrong, and not like me.
Eventually, I realized that academia had trained me to think marketing equals manipulation. Selling equals sleazy or self-promotion equals desperate. The “gross” feeling I was getting was my academic training talking.
Marketing isn’t what you think it is. By the end of this blog, you’ll understand what it actually is, why it doesn’t have to feel like selling your soul, and how to talk about your business without sounding like a LinkedIn influencer who’s “crushing it.”
Why academics think marketing is gross
Academia literally trains you to hate self-promotion.
You spent years learning to write yourself OUT of your research. You needed to use passive voice, and an objective tone. You carefully removed anything that sounds like “I” did something remarkable. Your dissertation went through seventeen rounds of feedback stripping away any hint of personality or personal investment.
Academic culture teaches you that self-promotion equals bragging equals being a bad academic citizen. The only acceptable promotion is when peer review validates your work, and then your institution promotes you. Your work is supposed to speak for itself.
Except it can’t, because nobody knows you exist.
Here’s the paradox: we as academics always feel like we have to lead with our credentials to prove we’re worthy. But in business, leading with credentials is exactly what doesn’t work.
And academics struggle with storytelling not because they lack material, but because they’re trained to distrust personal experience as “anecdotal.” Your lived experience, your specific struggles, your unique insights—the very things that make you credible to clients—academia taught you those don’t count as real evidence.
No wonder marketing feels impossible.
But what if everything you think you know about marketing is wrong?
What marketing actually is
Let me give you a definition that might change everything: marketing is problem-solving made visible.
That’s it. Who do you want to serve? How do you want to help them solve their problems? If you talk about their pain points and how you can help them solve those struggles, that’s marketing. It doesn’t have to be salesy or flashy or anything.
Marketing IS:
- Making yourself discoverable to people actively searching for help
- Having conversations about problems you can solve
- Being helpful in public
- Showing people you understand their struggles
Marketing is NOT:
- Hype language and manufactured urgency
- “Crushing it” and “game changers”
- Pressure tactics or bro marketing bullshit
- Convincing people they need something they don’t
Lisa Anthony, a tenured computer science professor who started an editing and coaching business, put it this way: “I know those are sales calls because that discovery call turns into a contract but it doesn’t feel salesy at all. It just feels like a conversation.”
Her approach: “I talk to them about what I think their goals are. Oh, it looks like you’re trying to do this in this paper. Let’s talk about that. And asking a lot of really pointed questions like I would for a PhD student I was advising.”
You’re not selling. You’re problem-solving out loud.
The authenticity principle
Lisa credits a workshop on authentic selling she took through my program for changing her mind on marketing. The insight: if you’re doing it authentically, it feels natural.
Lisa’s transformation tells you everything you need to know. When she first joined my program, her reaction to the business content was “oh my gosh, this was not what I thought I wanted to do.” She definitely did not want to run a business. She just wanted to do the cool stuff.
Now: “I’ve been really enjoying getting the marketing stuff together. I didn’t kind of expect to.”
She stopped trying to calculate every move for maximum marketing impact. She just started being helpful. She posted on LinkedIn. She got highlighted in my community. She wrote blog posts. She got on podcasts. Not as a calculated strategy, but as natural sharing.
Her result: “In some ways I’ve had low expectations for inquiries and then I’ve way exceeded them.”
Good things happen when you’re genuinely helpful and authentic, not when you’re running some manipulative marketing playbook.
Lead with their problems, not your credentials
This is what changes everything.
Wrong approach: “I have a PhD from X University. I published in Y journal. I’ve taught for Z years. Hire me.”
Right approach: “You’re drowning in revisions and your supervisor isn’t helping. You want to finish your dissertation this year, not three years from now. Here’s how I can help.”
When you start a business, you don’t lead with your credentials. Instead, you need to lead with your clients.
Why? When someone comes to your website, they honestly don’t care that you have a PhD. They’re going to think about that later. What you’re going to hook them with is showing them that you understand their struggles and that you have the expertise to help them. They want to know that you get it.
For example: “I help burned-out academic moms to finish and submit their manuscripts so they can spend vacations with their kids instead of always feeling guilty for missing out.”
That’s why people pay thousands of dollars to hire an editor or a coach. They’re not hiring you to check their periods and their commas. They’re hiring you because you GET IT. You understand the real problem.
Your credentials prove you can help. Their pain proves they need you.
What authentic marketing looks like in practice
This isn’t a playbook. Just a glimpse of what authentic marketing can be.
It looks like networking. Warm emails aren’t sales pitches. They’re just: “I’m starting to help people with X problem. Know anyone who might be interested?” This is networking. People do it all the time. You probably ask colleagues to co-author with you or serve on dissertation committees. This is the same thing.
It looks like being findable. LinkedIn isn’t about posting thought leadership threads. It’s about having a clear profile so when people research you (which they will), they can see you’re real and credible. And, your LinkedIn page is the number one place they’re going to go.
It looks like being helpful. Answer questions in Facebook groups. Be useful on Reddit (carefully). Share what you know. Try to be helpful in online communities where your ideal clients hang out, and people will look you up.
It looks like quality over quantity. Rosalba Lopez has been running a medical communications business for five years. Her take: “You don’t have to send 100 cold pitches a week to land clients. I’ve literally sent out maybe 10 pitches.” The key is learning how to write a persuasive pitch and pitch to the right people.
It looks like conversation. Discovery calls where you ask questions like you would with a PhD student you’re advising. Understanding their problem deeply. Explaining how you’d approach it. When you genuinely understand their struggle and can articulate solutions, they hire you.
When it still feels gross (and that’s okay)
Let’s be honest: even “good” marketing might feel uncomfortable.
Years of academic conditioning don’t disappear overnight. You’re breaking unspoken rules. You’re making yourself visible in new ways.
Lisa put it perfectly: “We weren’t trained for running a business, but then again we weren’t trained for a lot of things we do in academia. So when I started thinking that way I said, you know what, I am a successful woman of a certain age. I’m a tenured professor at an R1 university. I think I can decide what I spend my time on.”
Here’s the reframe: feeling uncomfortable doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. It means you’re doing something new.
When people respond positively, thank you for reaching out, hire you—that evidence starts to override the gross feeling. Lisa had low expectations for inquiries and then way exceeded them. The evidence builds, and the discomfort will fade.
Bottom line is that the gross feeling is data about your academic training, not data about whether your marketing is ethical.
The marketing you should actually avoid
Not all marketing is created equal.
The women entrepreneurs I know believe in honest, ethical marketing. They reject bro marketing tactics and pressure sales tactics, and they refuse to compromise their values just to sell more.
Avoid:
- Manufactured urgency and fake scarcity
- Hype language like “game changer,” “crushing it,” “leveraging”
- Bait-and-switch “free value” that’s really a 90-minute sales pitch
- The “guru” persona and performative expertise
- Fabricated social proof
The test: if it would make you cringe to receive it, don’t send it.
The standard: you’re a wise mentor, not a guru.
Proof it works
When Lisa first started posting on LinkedIn, it felt weird. She sent cold emails, and created an NSF Career Grant workshop based on expertise she’d been giving away for free. The first person enrolled within two hours of opening. Now she’s really enjoying getting the marketing stuff together—which she didn’t expect at all.
Meg Toth, a former tenured professor, does very little marketing. She’s a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association directory so she gets lots of referrals. She’s been completely booked for a year.
Laura made business cards during her cohort. She handed them out at one conference and got a year of work from that single event.
None of them are marketing gurus. They’re just consistently showing up, being helpful, and letting people know they exist.
Marketing is just problem-solving made visible
Remember that blank LinkedIn post? That cursor blinking? That feeling of wanting to help people but not knowing how to tell them you exist?
Marketing isn’t about convincing people they need you. It’s about making yourself discoverable to people who already need what you offer.
What you actually have to do: talk about the problems you solve, and have genuine conversations. Show up as yourself.
Good marketing feels like having coffee with a colleague who asks, “So what are you working on these days?” And you tell them.
That’s it. That’s marketing.
Will it always feel comfortable? No. But neither did your first lecture or dissertation defense. You figured those out. You’ll figure this out too.